Theres somebody at the Door!

[fach3003]

Hi all,

Over the last week one of my friends
( 6 of us normally come over to LOS inc Wife)
has announced he has thrown in the towel to the UK.

He has been teaching down in London and has decided
just to pack up and leave over the next few months...
He going for a work permit etc etc....

What worries me (and i couldnt do it hence still saving!)
is that hes going to get money from his credit cards or
a loan....surely if he does this and doesnt pay the repayments
someone will come looking for him even in LOS.

If not we all would be up to it..... Personally i couldnt sleep at night
Im trying to put him off....In case he ends up back in UK

Help as im trying to get some bullets to put him off....

Hope you can give some advice on this....

Regards to all

[sandman67]

weeeellllll...my knowledge here is a bit outdated but.....

premeditated credit card and loan fraud is fraud under the Theft Act....so it will attract jailtime in the UK if he gets caught.

Now....Id say that emptying the cards of cash and getting a loan, then sodding off and defaulting on the lot classes as mens rea or premeditation.....

As to getting caught....well as far as i knew CC companies and banks keep their records for at least 5 years....so tell your mate not to go home and try opening any bank accounts for at least that long....personally Id leave it a good few years more or even better never go back at all.

Another way of doing this is to take out the loans etc, make a few repayments, then claim voluntary bankruptcy after 6 months and sod all the debts off...he can always say he lost the lot on a bar purchase over here. 12 months later, or 3 years in some cases, and the lot is cleared, although you then have a black mark with banks etc back home.

Enforcement here.....make me laugh

UK debt collectors couldn't find their arses if you hung bells on em, and certainly wont chase him here. Police, etc wont get interested unless its a big big amount.

Id also guess that Thai banks have sod all capability to access UK banking records and references so he should be able to get by here.

The best argument to use is "dont do the crime of you cant stand the time"...

[fach3003]

I wondered what that ring bell noise was.....hahaha

He gets home sick after 3 weeks

[Sabai Jai]

Depending on who the Bank / Card supplier is you may find they act very quickly, particularly if they see lots of activity in Thailand.

It can be very tempting to get out of Blighty at this time of year...but not worth a load of misery.

Keep it straight

SJ

[lomuamart]

A few years ago here, I was stupid enough to have run up a fairly hefty debt on my UK credit card. I was a bit strapped for cash one month and cancelled the minimum payment by direct debit on the internet. I then didn't bother reinstating for a good few months afterwards.
Needless to say, the letters starting getting more and more threatening. I contacted an Debt Advice centre back home for advice. I was pretty sure that the debt was unsecured and there was little the credit card company could do, especially regarding chasing me over here. What I was worried about was my property. Could bayliffs come in and remove possessions etc? Could they put a lien on the house?
Anyway, the advice was that indeed the debt was unsecured and the worst that could happen was to get a bad credit rating. I should try to renegotiate repayments.
Was back in the UK some months later and did exactly that. They didn't like it, but when I explained that they either accepted my terms or they got nothing, they finally agreed. The debt was eventually paid off.
So, I doubt there's much a credit card company can do. A loan company would surely ask for collateral? But, as Sandman says, if they can prove you did it on purpose, premeditatedly, then you could be in big trouble.
I also wouldn't advise your friend to do it.

[fach3003]

Im as straight as u go....

but its my Mate that needs sorting out!!!

he had problems in BKK too....

[STEVE G]

And people wonder why the world is facing a credit crunch! An ex-colleague of my brother tried to finance emigrating to America on loans and credit cards and got arrested at Heathrow on the way out.

[fach3003]

Thanks for the advice lomuamart and all

I push the point across....